ON ST. GABRIEL, PRIEST AND ABBOT OF THE MONASTERY OF ST. STEPHEN AT JERUSALEM.
Fifth century.
CommentaryGabriel, Abbot at Jerusalem (St.)
From various sources.
[1] Gabriel the Priest, whom on January 20 Cyril the monk adorned with the highest praises in the Life of St. Euthymius, is venerated by the Greeks on this day, Feast of St. Gabriel; as is evident from Maximus Cythereus and the Menaea, which say only this about him: "On the same day the venerable Gabriel completes his life in peace."
"With Gabriel, the leader of the hosts of intellects, Christ places also Gabriel the younger."
On the same day St. Gabriel finishes his life in peace.
"With Gabriel, the captain of the Angels, Christ stations the young Gabriel."
He is called "young" because he was called to the religious life as quite a youth -- which Cyril describes thus in no. 40.
[2] The great Euthymius had in mind neither to construct a cenobium nor a Laura at all in that place. Therefore whenever any came to him, whether renouncing the world or bringing things necessary for bodily use, they were sent back by him to Blessed Theoctistus. But when divine providence was now wisely arranging from above his entrance into the religious life, that this desert should be inhabited -- since it well knew what was to come, namely that this thing would be the cause of salvation for many -- certain men, three brothers in the flesh, approached him; they were offspring of Cappadocia indeed, but had been raised in Syria and had there exercised themselves in virtue and learning: Cosmas, Chrysippus, and Gabriel. He, however, acting as was his custom, did not admit even them, openly alleging their youthful age and the mutual longing of nature, which often tends to undermine the constancy of religious practice, and especially because Gabriel was still an adolescent and beardless. For these reasons he was entirely unwilling to admit them. But that night someone came to him in a dream, commanding him both to receive the brothers God commands that he be received; ("For they have been sent by God himself," he said) and to be prepared henceforth to accept anyone who approached and wished to enter. In the morning, therefore, having received that beautiful brotherhood and kinship as the vision had commanded him, he said to Cosmas, who was the eldest of the brothers in age: "Thus I have done, as God commanded me, and have brought you in here. Now it is fitting that you keep your younger brother Gabriel within his cell and by no means permit him to go out."
[3] These events occurred around the year of Christ 428. Because Gabriel was a natural eunuch, as is said in no. 79, after twenty-five years he first came to the synaxis of the Brothers, around the year of Christ 453, when, in no. 78, standing near the altar, he saw fire descending from above, spread out as upon a linen cloth, heavenly visions; and moreover saw the great Euthymius himself (who was offering the unbloody sacrifice), and Domitian with him (who was standing at the right with the mystical fan), enveloped within it, and this remained around them from the beginning of the Trisagion until the completion of the sacred ministry. This, heard from St. Gabriel, was narrated to Cyril the writer by St. Cyriacus, whose life we shall give on September 29.
[4] The Blessed Empress Eudocia (no. 87, around the year 458) summoned from the Laura the Brothers who were custodians of the Cross, the priesthood; specifically the Deacons -- namely, Chrysippus and Gabriel -- and arranged for them to be ordained Priests. The governance of the monastery of St. Stephen. She also entrusted to Gabriel the governance of the monastery of Stephen the Protomartyr, which was not a full stadium distant from the city of Jerusalem, at which place St. Stephen is believed to have been stoned to death, as was said there. When Eudocia wished to approach St. Euthymius and enjoy his conversation and teaching, and at the same time also the Laura, in no. 98, she sent Gabriel, asking that this be permitted her. She also, as is said in no. 99, dedicated the temple of Stephen the Protomartyr of Christ, which had not yet been fully constructed, on the fifteenth day of January. Then, having assigned a generous income to it and given its care to Gabriel, she also did not neglect the other Churches The dedication of the church of that monastery, which had been built by her, but visited them also very diligently, dedicating each one and assigning sufficient income to each. After four months had already passed since the dedication, she too left this human life and departed to the Lord. Therefore that dedication took place in the fourth year of Leo, the year of Christ 460, in which year Eudocia died in May, and was buried in the same temple of St. Stephen.
[5] Afterwards St. Euthymius departed this life in the year of Christ 473, at whose burial Gabriel also came in the company of the Patriarch Anastasius, in no. 110. Gabriel's annual retreat. When Gabriel had been Priest and Prefect for twenty-four years (the year of the Christian era, according to the reckoning already established, was 482), he built for himself a small monastery in the valley of the venerable temple to the east, which had been named the monastery of the Holy Assumption. Into which, in imitation of Blessed Euthymius, withdrawing after the eighth day of the divine Theophany, he would remain there until the feast of Palms. Being a diligent student, he had a talent that aided him in this. Whence it came about skill in languages, that he exercised his tongue in the language both of the Greeks and of the Romans and also of the Syrians. He died in his eightieth year of age at the monastery, and there a tomb was made for the man, who was distinguished by the greatest signs. These things are recorded there in no. 103, after the death of both brothers has been related: miracles, Cosmas in the bishopric of Scythopolis, and Chrysippus, renowned for his written books, in the ministry of Guardian of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem. If St. Gabriel began the monastic life at the age of eighteen, he rested in peace around the year of Christ 490. death.